DOI To Merge BLM, Surface Mining Agency

Law360, New York (October 27, 2011, 5:34 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Department of the Interior plans to merge the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the Bureau of Land Management, integrating oversight of coal mining and environmental restoration programs for abandoned mine lands, the department said Wednesday.

OSM is a 525-employee agency that oversees state surface coal mining regulatory programs and helps restore lands and water degraded by mining operations before 1977. The larger BLM administers 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate throughout the U.S. and manages more than 245 million acres...